The streak continues.
No. 4 Duke stamped its resume with an excellent victory for postseason seeding Sunday, bouncing back from its loss against Notre Dame a week earlier to take down No. 2 Virginia 18-12 on Senior Day in Koskinen Stadium in front of a sellout crowd. The victory extends Duke’s unbeaten streak against the Cavaliers in the regular season all the way back to 2005.
“Good win,” head coach John Danowski said following the victory. “The last two weekends, the crowds here in Durham have been absolutely fabulous.”
The key to the Blue Devils’ victory was utilizing their excellent defense to catalyze offensive looks in transition. Graduate attackman Josh Zawada led the way with five goals, Brennan O’Neill added four and Dyson Williams had a hat-trick. Duke (11-3, 1-2 in the ACC) also aced its assignment against two-time Tewaaraton Award finalist Connor Shellenberger, allowing him only one goal and three assists, and freshman goalie Patrick Jameison impressed with an excellent 13 saves.
But Duke was on the back foot at the beginning. Virginia (10-2, 1-1 in the ACC) won the first faceoff and fired wayward shots towards the cage, creating offensive pressure. While a hard shot from Griffin Schutz blocked off the chrome of Kenny Brower’s helmet and cleared away, Duke then carelessly turned it over. In the following moments, the Cavaliers got on the board first, as a low shot from Schutz found the bottom corner and ignited the away support on the far sideline.
However, the biggest blow to Duke occurred after conceding. As faceoff extraordinaire Jake Naso won the next draw, he stayed in the offensive zone to create quick offense for the Blue Devils. Receiving the ball at the top of the point, Naso cut in and then lost the ball going to shoot. The sliding defenders knocked the senior to the floor where he landed awkwardly. Naso remained down, slamming his fist on the floor and grabbing at his ankle before being helped off the field by medical staff with a low-grade ankle sprain.
After two offensive zone turnovers in a row, Duke had its first opportunity to get on the board after a 30-second hold against George Fulton battling a squirming Jack Gray trying to escape the wrath of the Cavaliers. After sending it around the horn a few times, The Blue Devils capitalized, as Zawada found a cutting Dyson Williams on the doorstep for the easy finish to knot the game at one. Duke then took the lead, as Benn Johnston dodged left, switched hands and fired a rocket into the upper-right corner of the net. Virginia responded quickly, as a dodging Payton Cormier cut from the top, absorbed the stick pressure on his hands and finished through the contact.
Despite injury troubles at faceoff, the Blue Devils mastered the art of turning their defense into big goals, a strategy which paid dividends across the game.
One example was when a huge save from Jameison was picked up by Aidan Maguire. Max Sloat then sent a skip pass across the field to O’Neill for his first tally. Another stick save by Jameison allowed the freshman to find Maguire again on the outlet. After breaking the ride, the sophomore found O’Neill, who fed it to a streaking Jake Caputo, sending Koskinen into pandemonium and forcing a Virginia timeout.
To cap off the excellent quarter, Andrew McAdorey picked up the ball just behind the midfield line, beat four defenders and emerged in space in front of the goal. He then fed the ball across to O’Neill, who completed his first-quarter hat trick in style to put Duke up by four. The seven goals scored on seven shots was the most allowed by the Cavaliers this year, and forced Virginia to sit starting goalie Matthew Nunes at the start of the second quarter.
“A Duke-Virginia game is always like that, it’s transitions … it’s really a very athletic event,” Danowski said. “And so we practiced for that the whole week and we were able to score in transition.”
The Cavaliers regained some momentum in the second frame. Shellenberger juked Duke’s Charlie O’Connor out of his shoes, and found Will Cory cutting down the lane for a quick finish. Then, a Maguire turnover allowed Shellenberger to run downhill and gun it past Jameison for another score. Virginia capitalized again, as Cormier found nylon off a nice pass from Shellenberger to pull it to within two.
Just as it seemed Virginia would ride the momentum further, O’Neill found the ball at the top of the point and ripped it off the crossbar and in, sending the crowd at Koskinen into “you can’t guard him” chants. Jameison then produced some of his best goalie work of the year: He denied two looks, one with the stick and the other with his body. He then denied another opportunity, robbing Shellenberger at point-blank range, going all-out to protect the 10-7 lead, which Duke took into the break.
“The defense in front of me was letting me see shots I like to see,” Jameison said. “Far out … make it easy for me to save.”
Duke immediately got a mental boost out halftime as Naso returned to the faceoff dot. McAdorey dodged downhill from the left side of the field, finishing with his right hand into the side netting. Williams then furthered the advantage, taking a cross-field pass from Max Sloat and dumping it into the net. Zawada then scored his fourth of the game, bouncing a shot to put Duke up by six.
Virginia put together its own run towards the end of the quarter. After almost 16 minutes without a score, the Cavaliers finally found their footing as Schutz completed his hat trick. Jack Boyden dodged from behind the crease and flicked a backhanded shot past Jameison and Cormier then spun away from pressure and fired it into the net for his 44th goal of the season. Just like that, Virginia was within three.
Another mistake killed the Cavaliers’ momentum. After a hectic faceoff, Ben Wayer tried to evade the pressure and find an outlet. Kyle Morris came out of his crease to the right to try and help. Williams intercepted a pass, and with Morris out of position, fired it into the empty net. A few minutes later, Zawada rifled one from the left side of the field into the back of the net. On the following faceoff, Naso showed off his seemingly healed ankle, taking it coast-to-coast to score his third goal of the season. McAdorey then capped the four-goal run, dodging from behind the cage to put the Blue Devils up 17-10. And just after two quick Virginia goals pulled the Cavaliers within five, Naso completed another coast to coast goal, putting the game out of reach.
“I didn’t want to stop playing,” Naso said. “It was my last game [in Koskinen] so just giving it everything I have.”
“[It] just boosts everyone's confidence on the field when they see that when a guy gets hurt, he then comes back in the game and dominates the way he did today,” Zawada said of Naso.
Duke finishes off the regular season with a duel against archrival North Carolina in Chapel Hill April 27, with time to heal for Naso and others.
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